The invention relates to a disc or wafer-like metallic fashion article such as jewelry, a tag, a medal or a watch dial, which is treated on one or both sides.
Such disc-shaped metallic fashion articles are in wide use in the manufacture of jewelry. These fashion articles may be worn alone, for example, as ear pendants, or they may be part of a jewelry creation, for example, a necklace or a bracelet. The surfaces of these metallic wafer-like jewelry pieces are treated in various ways such that these discs or wafers have either plain or smooth, mirror-like, polished or patterned surfaces. The material used for such articles may be any type of metal from aluminum to precious metals. The precious metals, particularly silver and gold, are usually maintained so as to show their colors. Aluminum however is generally subjected to an anodic treatment to provide for various surface colorings. The same is true with regard to galvanic treatment of titanium. If mirror-like treated surfaces with a roughness (peak-to-valley height) of less than 1 .mu.m are disired, metals with hard surfaces are utilized, that is, generally surface-hardened metals which retain the mirror-like brilliance over a long period of time. Such hard materials, that is, for example, carbides, nitrides, borides and silicides, however are relatively difficult to work. Jewelry of such materials is therefore relatively expensive and therefore not competitive when compared with jewelry of precious metals of about the same price.
However mirror-like metal surfaces with a roughness of 1 .mu.m as indicated above have optical properties which are of particular interest in connection with jewelry. The properties which cause the articles to become desirable jewelry pieces may be enhanced by additional surface treatment, for example, by providing a surface pattern or by coatings which achieve additional optical effects.
It is therefore the principal object of the present invention to provide a wafer-like article for use in jewelry, particularly in fashion jewelry which is relatively inexpensive, and which has a hard surface but nevertheless can be worked or treated by means known to a material expert in such a manner that unusual and interesting optical effects are obtained.